Poplar Proxies don't reach 3 meg speed

IanUK · 13-03-2005, 09:01

Hi,

I'm routed automatically through the Poplar proxies and this week had my STB upgraded to 3 meg, very nice

My problem is that none of the Poplar proxies can reach 3 meg speed, all of them seem to only max out about 150k, if I switch to a different proxy (Colchester/Swansea etc) then I can get the full 375k.

For instance using:
http://www.supernews.com/stats/active.txt as an example
Poplar proxy only reaches 123k but others give me the full 375 rate.

I've noticed this with nearly all web sites when downloading files.

Can one of the nice NTL tech people have a look, or if I'm mistaken can they tell me what I'm doing wrong ?

Thanks

Ian

mr-b · 20-03-2005, 12:36

Have you tried connecting directly to the Poplar proxies or are you letting your web traffic be redirected transparently to them?

IanUK · 20-03-2005, 19:15

I'm transparently routed through them, but specifying them specifically doesn't make them any faster

I'm using Hersham or Colchester currently and getting full speeds, but surely all the proxies should be able to cope with the 3 meg speed or whats the point of having them ?

cheers

Ian

daz300 · 20-03-2005, 19:31

hersham

21-03-2005, 00:08

I am using the poplar proxies & download at 240kB on my 2Mb connection.

Foo Fighter · 21-03-2005, 00:25

get a max of 120K on that link gonna change proxy then

yup changed to colchester and much faster for some reason

th'engineer · 21-03-2005, 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foo Fighter

get a max of 120K on that link gonna change proxy then

yup changed to colchester and much faster for some reason

Can any of the cable forum team suggest why this happens we have had similar threads http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=25968, http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=25571 & http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=25988.

Last time NTL had poxy problerms they switched them off due to pressure on this board.

I wonder if the poxys can not cope with the new speeds, where they specified to run with new speeds or is it the wccp softyware that will not work.

IanUK · 21-03-2005, 09:14

Its strange, most sites I visit (Fileplanet,Easynews & 99% of all homepages with games files/vids etc) only give about 140-180k at most through the Poplar Proxies, switching to either Colchester or Hersham gives full 370k speed IN EVERY CASE, this seems to indicate that the Poplar Proxies are misconfigured in some way, or speed capped.

Those of us routed through Poplar are getting a raw deal if we are on the 3 meg package, as most sites will only give sub 2 meg speeds default.

Perhaps a techy from NTL could look into this please ?

Cheers

Ian

th'engineer · 21-03-2005, 21:07

looks like people are missing this thread

mr-b · 22-03-2005, 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanUK

Its strange, most sites I visit (Fileplanet,Easynews & 99% of all homepages with games files/vids etc) only give about 140-180k at most through the Poplar Proxies, switching to either Colchester or Hersham gives full 370k speed IN EVERY CASE, this seems to indicate that the Poplar Proxies are misconfigured in some way, or speed capped.

Not necessarily. When you specify a different proxy you are also using a completely different section of network as well - and so you can't make a deduction like like this - although it might be tempting.

This is why ppl tend to blame proxies for all sorts of behaviour changes, since it is the only tangible thing that they changing - when in fact there are many other network changes too, as a result of changing the proxy, that aren't very visible (unless you use something like tcp-traceroute to show the actual network path used).

That said, your evidence shoud be something that support can use to investigate further. Did you report the issue?

One other thing is to investigate your TCP Receive window which will limit download throughput from sites.
http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks

downquark1 · 23-03-2005, 10:52

I'm being routed transparently through manc-cache-12.server.ntli.net and I never seem to be getting my full 2mb. Right now I'm downloading 2 files from fileplanet at 20kb and a slow torrent at about 20kb. Shouldn't I be gettting twice these speeds?

I am on the 2mb service, I've ran the speeds test and checked the modem file

IanUK · 23-03-2005, 11:09

I haven't reported it yet, I just got the contact details from the guys at Chetnet, so I'll give it a go.

I altered my TCP receive window from that site and it made a difference to NNTP downloads from Easynews, I get full whack from one connection now which I couldn't before, but it made no difference to the Poplar Proxies, they still appear much slower than others.

__________________

Quote:

Right now I'm downloading 2 files from fileplanet at 20kb and a slow torrent at about 20kb. Shouldn't I be gettting twice these speeds?

You should definately get more than 20k from Fileplanet with a 2mb connection, I normally get at least 150k, it depends on their load etc but 20k is very poor.

Torrents vary enormously so 20k could be all you can get out of that particular one, also if you are uploading (as you probably will be if you are using Bittorrent) then your download speed could be fragmented somewhat, on my cable modem uploading drastically affects download speed.

cheers

Ian

downquark1 · 23-03-2005, 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanUK

You should definately get more than 20k from Fileplanet with a 2mb connection, I normally get at least 150k, it depends on their load etc but 20k is very poor.

Torrents vary enormously so 20k could be all you can get out of that particular one, also if you are uploading (as you probably will be if you are using Bittorrent) then your download speed could be fragmented somewhat, on my cable modem uploading drastically affects download speed.

cheers

Ian

I'm very aware how torrents work and have limited my uploads to 20kb.

I'm just a bit frustrated that my web browsing and downloads seems to be more sluggish than before the upgrade. Ill try altering the RWIN but I was under the impression that windows xp did that automatically.

downquark1 · 23-03-2005, 12:29

I applied the RWIN registry tweak from dslreports, quit the torrents and all network programs.

Rebooted and start a fileplanet download, it start at about 100kb but quickly drops to 20-30

Chrysalis · 26-03-2005, 02:38

my issue here in detail

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...164#post434164

Did experiments with my own proxy server, and it seems the ntl proxies cant cope, I tried colchester proxies and the first 2 are good but the last 4 are slow. Right now trying number 2 for normal use.

The problem is I cannot see NTL backing down on this problem, I would be very surprised if they abandoned their proxy policy even tho there are much better ways to save the money.